1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and particularly to a technology that creates a blurring-emphasized image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In fields of imaging apparatuses, such as digital cameras, and image processing apparatuses, corresponding point detection and image transformation are performed for images acquired by what is called focus bracket imaging, and blurring is performed for a prescribed image on the basis thereof, thus performing an image with a shallow depth of field. For instance, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-271240, the filter characteristics of a Gaussian filter to be applied to a reference image are calculated on the basis of focus bracketed images, and the reference image is locally smoothed on the basis of the characteristics, thereby creating a blurring-emphasized image. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-241424 discloses that when a noise adding filter is applied to an image, a region which includes a person or the like and to which noise is not intended to be added is detected, a soft focus process is performed for the region, and a noise adding process is performed for regions other than the region concerned.